John LeBoutillier
Monday, Oct. 11, 2004

Sixteen long years ago my older brother had a similar disastrous accident, broke his neck - and many other bones - and became a quadriplegic. He is still alive - thank God.

Along with our mother, I have run his care for all those 16 years - and it is not easy.

The collective suffering among the family is too often ignored. And the patient’s suffering is transferred into his loved ones.

After you get through all the medical problems and the financial ones, too (they are many!), you have to draw back and ask, “Why?”

Why do these things happen?

Is it simply a random case of bad luck?

Or is it meant to lead us to a new level of awareness?

In Christopher Reeve’s case, he is a true American hero because he used his immense suffering combined with his celebrity status to lead the charge for more medical research for spinal cord injuries.

Up until about 15 years ago, this was a dead-end medical field. Bright, young, up-and-coming scientists were choosing other fields of medical science to explore and thus not much progress had been made.

But today spinal cord research is a “hot” area of research now - in no small measure thanks to Chris Reeve.

Perhaps God selected this brave young man - who He knew could withstand the suffering of the injury and the subsequent depression - to ‘teach’ the world about these damn injuries.

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In the United States alone each year there are more than 10,000 new spinal injury cases. Each one is a devastating tragedy with huge consequences mushrooming throughout a community of people.

The family, the nurses and doctors, other care-givers - even carpenters and plumbers and home-builders who often have to renovate bathrooms, ramps, floors and doorways. And none of this takes into account the financial cost - to someone: the family, the insurance companies, and charities who pitch in.

The bottom line of it all: we must cure spinal cord injuries - along with many other disastrous afflictions like MS, Parkinsons’, Cystic Fybrosis, ALS and many, many others.

The key to finding cures?

Yes, money is one. But so, too, is prayer. Prayer not only for the victims and all who are affected, but also prayer for those searching for scientific progress. Cures do not often come in one fell swoop; instead they are incremental - bit by bit.

Christopher Reeve is with God today. We all should pray for his family - and for his soul up in Heaven.

But we should also thank God for using Christopher to help ‘teach’ the world that spinal cord research must be a top priority. Yes, he played ‘Superman’ in the movies, but he was much more heroic when serving a Big Plan to help so many suffering people.